A Walk Down a Familiar Path

"Why hello there, I've been expecting you."

He stood behind the gates with his aura ablaze. His shallow smile was one that said, "I know what's going on here." His eyes seemed to pierce into my soul, trying to pry out its secrets. His slightly bowed body was just enough to show courtship but at the same time his passive aggression. It was Convir, and I was pretty sure he wasn't the most pleased with me right now.

Cortritio replied to Convir's obvious instigation calmy while wearing that smile he always did, "That's great to hear... I suppose I'll be leaving now. I'm sure you can lead him to his destination, right Convir?"

His words were filled to the brim with passive aggression. But he didn't say anything more, instead walking away like he said he would. This left just me, Convir, and the two guards in front of the gates. Convir didn't seem too disturbed by Cortritio's words and proceeded to turn to me before saying, "Now, we should be going, shouldn't we? I always make sure to personally give a tour to new students of my Campus, and while you aren't a student, Igmor, I still feel obligated to keep the tradition going. So let me show you around."

He said my name as if he were mentally putting quotation marks around it, making it clear to me that he knew my true identity. But in all honesty, it wasn't like I cared much if others found out. It was Medisma's scheme, not mine. And to me, anything that gets in the way of Medisma's scheme is a good thing. I couldn't actively go around and tell others who I am, the consequences of that would be severe, but if someone just figured it out on their own... I couldn't be blamed for that.

"Sure, let's go."

With my approval, Convir turned around and said something to the guards making them open the gate. I leisurely hopped through the open gates, ending up next to Convir as we walked away from the gate. Soon enough the gate was out of sight and it was then that Convir stopped walking forward, prompting me to do the same. He turned to me and said bluntly, "Now that there is no one watching, let's get down to business. First of all, let me call you Quis, that'll make things much easier for me. And second, what's going on between you and Medisma? How much do you know?"

Because of the accusation in his voice, I could tell he already thought that I had completely sided with the Neutral Faction. That wasn't something I wanted him to think. If he thinks that he'll never have the chance to control me, I won't be able to suck any resources out of him. Right now Convir was still higher up on the food chain than me, if he found dissatisfaction in me and thought that my existence would hinder his, he wouldn't hesitate to take me out. So I had to show him how I was useful, but at the same time show him how he was better than me. Human nature was strange in that way. If you want to get rewarded by the master, then you must make the master look good and think he is good.

"What is going on between me and Medisma? Well if you're asking if I've sworn loyalty or something like that, you can get rid of that thought now. We only made a deal which had some great benefits for me. And now I'm enacting my part of the deal, but she seems pretty certain that we'll continue our partnership down the line..." That was to implant a sense of urgency into him like how a woman's beauty is accentuated the more men lust after her, "I am still a part of your faction and am willing to act out your strategies. I simply ask for benefits. I can use the knowledge you've imparted imparted into me for your cause, but I know that you know no one moves without something in it for them." And there was some indirect flattery, making my request for benefits seem more pleasant to the ears.

He was stuck on my words for quite the moment. After mentally dissecting my words for a while longer he put on a poker face and asked me, "What kind of "benefits" do you have in mind?"

Perfect, he took the bait, "Well for starters, I either want to have enough money to not worry about buying materials for my Fruit or to not have to spend money on materials at all." That would solve to problem of money, "Then I also want an unconscious Dirt Class Cultivator at my front door every two nights starting tonight." That would allow me to bring my Cultivation Talent which fell to an F back up, "Next I think It's only fair for you to share with me how to ascend to Stone Class." That way I could ascend as fast as possible and resume my cultivation. "I also need you to officially appoint me as a teacher on Campus so I can come and go where I need to be without it being difficult." That gives me access to the students, and more importantly, the other keys I need to capture.

With my list-like form of demands, Convir seemed to be flabbergasted before quickly recovering, "... I have a question. You seem to value yourself so highly, but why should I even give you special benefits? What do you have to offer me?"

I began to walk around him while I marketed my use, "Well, first we'll start with the obvious: I'm strong. I'm sure you watched the battle I had recently, so you should know that already. Although I haven't reached the level of a Grand Elder, I would still be useful in pure military aspects. Secondly, I have ties with the Neutral Faction and could act as a spy for you whenever you deem it necessary. And lastly, I can help you with something that you have been vigorously working toward for a while now. I can help you become the Sect Leader."

He still seemed hesitant at first, but once I mentioned becoming the Sect Leader, Convir's eyes showed an immense reaction. He was able to keep his emotions down and said as though still unconvinced, "How's that?"

A stopped walking and answered his question, "Well, you know me well enough to know that I'm not stupid Convir. I have found myself able to identify some very important cracks within the L'Amour family's strategies. And because I'm sure you already know, I also have a plan for when Medisma unifies the sect."

Convir was very interested, but at the same time confused. He was interested in these holes I've found and this plan I had, but he was also confused as to how I knew them and also how I knew Medisma talked with him. He snapped himself out of his confusion and asked me, "That sounds wonderful and all, but how do I know you're telling the truth? It is suspicious to think that you, a 16-year-old, would be able to see cracks that I haven't."

The truth would be that once you live in constant political turmoil for 400 years, you get a hang of how everything works, but that wouldn't fly right now. So instead I'll just come up with a plausible excuse, "Well as insurance, once I see an unconscious man tonight, I'll tell you one hole the L'Amour family has left wide open. As for how I was able to figure it out, well, on top of the great education on the Campus, I had a lot of time on my hands while under the captive of Medisma. I filled some of that time with reading books of plentiful genres. Politics and history were what gave me some ideas." I needed to be careful so that he still thinks he is above me in smarts, so I made sure to sneak in a compliment of his "great" education system.

Getting that information solely from a book was suspicious, but if you consider my past accomplishments, it didn't seem too far-fetched. Convir seemed to agree with my assessment and sighed, "Alright, I'll accept your conditions. But I will have some changes to them. The first two are fine, I'll see to it that they go off without a hitch, but it's the next two that concern me. No matter what, I can't show you how to ascend to Stone Class unless you do it right away, so that'll have to be planned. And next, the whole teacher bit. I'm not against making you a teacher, but even if you only want to be one in name, you'll need to actually teach students every now and then."

I assumed that I wouldn't be able to get papers on how to ascend, so that wasn't too hard for me to swallow. And teaching the students maybe once every week wouldn't be bad. It would only help once my identity is exposed. Though, if I wasn't able to know how to ascend, I still needed to know one thing, "That's fine with me, but I still want to know one thing. What grade must your Cultivation Talent be to ascend to Stone Class?" Another thing to keep in mind. Masters love it when you ask questions. It makes them feel better about themselves and makes you seem inferior which has the effect of raising your importance to them. Convir knows all too well that paying someone to take over your position is the pinnacle of stupidity, so his ideal person would be someone strong but also kind of dull at the same time. I would try to take over that role in his mind, making me the ideal underling.

He stopped and thought for a moment, before shrugging and answering my question, "I suppose that much will be fine. You have to have at least a D- in Cultivation Talent to get to Stone Class. And since I'm saying that, I'll just say the others as well. It's a C- for Coal Class, a B- for Iron Class, and an A- for Gold Class."

Well, that meant I still had some time until I could even try to ascend. It would take a while for my F Grade Cultivation Talent to get to D- because of the entire E Grade that existed. The chances of getting an F or E Grade Talent during awakening have been observed to be around 10%. That was why you could find Dirt Class Cultivators cluttered into groups, but unless it was either a small settlement where they all resided or a big settlement where manpower was needed, you didn't see them much. Due to the recent Wild Beast tide, a lot of the permanent Dirt Class Cultivators in the sect were killed which created a temporary lack of manpower. Stone Class Cultivators had to take over their jobs to keep the sect going. It showed how important the weak were even in a world as such.

I turned to Convir and asked my final question, "Alright, that's good to know. Also, where is it that I'm supposed to teach the elders?"

As I said this Convir froze up as he suddenly realized something, "That old hag! She never told me where you were supposed to go!"

I took in a deep breath, accepting the trivial mess in front of me before saying my goodbyes to Convir, "Well, I know the area pretty well, so I'll go off on my own and find the place. It's a pleasure doing business with you Convir... oh yeah, before I go, is there anywhere you think I should check?"

Upon seeing him shake his head, I turned around and walked into the jungle, taking the shortcut I had memorized to the first building I would check as Convir said goodbye as well, "I'll see you around then. I hope you can hold up your end of the bargain."

___________________________________________________________________________

The night was steadily approaching as I faced the 14th building today. This was one of the last ideas that I had in mind. It was a building with no real purpose but was still around because no one felt the need to tear it down. It took on a rectangular-like shape looking to be around 50 meters by 20 meters. It was only one story tall, that one story being about 8 meters high. The walls boasted two windows on two parallel sides. The roof had a circular nature to it while still keeping up the appearance of a roof. The entire building looked abandoned with rusting nails and rotting wood. The building looked to have been taken over by the local flora, being a mess of weeds and grass.

I walked up to the only door leading inside of the building and pulled it open slowly. The inside was dimly lit by the setting sun through a couple of windows letting me barely able to see the interior of the abandoned building. From where I was the first thing I saw was a podium at the 20-meter end of the building I entered from. On the podium were a pencil and a piece of paper with even more of both placed within the hollow section of the podium. Behind it was a blackboard with chalk placed inside a tiny compartment attached to it. As I turned my attention to the rest of the room, an interesting sight befell me.

There were only five desks and chairs within the large section of the building you would expect more to be. But that wasn't what made me curious. Sitting at each of those desks was one of the five Elders I gave a thrashing recently. Only the stomach wound I gave to Culdia and the ripped shoulder belonging to Onvima were healed, leaving cuts and bruises on the rest of their bodies. Of course that wasn't including Paxium who I gave a complete beating. I'm sure if she wasn't able to be healed, she would have died with how badly I hurt her. Though I'm not sure if her mentality healed considering the hellish pain I put her through... but that was fine. The mentally unstable were easier to control than normal people.

They were all sleeping soundlessly on their desks. I'm pretty sure that whatever Medisma did to me when she kidnapped me, she did to them, so they were passed out and probably wouldn't be able to move even if they awoke. I wasn't quite expecting this, as I didn't really know what to expect. I decided to wait for them to wake naturally or at least until I had a plan in motion. I could already guess the actions they would have once they woke up and could move. They probably wouldn't want to accept me as a teacher at all, but it's not like I could just tell Medisma they said no.

I had to come up with something clever to get them to stay and let me reeducate them.